Most apirplanes made today are "fly by wire" so this isn't new technology, but what concerns me is the statment: "Drivers can also man oeuvre cars more easily as the system cuts out what it deems as unnecessary feedback from the tires to the driver." I wonder what sort of feedback they will cut out. We all use the feedback from the road and tires to help us steer through traffic.

minoridiot:Most apirplanes made today are "fly by wire" so this isn't new technology, but what concerns me is the statment: "Drivers can also man oeuvre cars more easily as the system cuts out what it deems as unnecessary feedback from the tires to the driver." I wonder what sort of feedback they will cut out. We all use the feedback from the road and tires to help us steer through traffic.

The concern isn't really the new technology it's when it needs to be implemented on a minimum budget/maximum profit scale.

minoridiot:Most apirplanes made today are "fly by wire" so this isn't new technology, but what concerns me is the statment: "Drivers can also man oeuvre cars more easily as the system cuts out what it deems as unnecessary feedback from the tires to the driver." I wonder what sort of feedback they will cut out. We all use the feedback from the road and tires to help us steer through traffic.

Four engineers are driving down the road when the engine starts running rough. They start arguing about the cause.The ChE says "We've got a fuel problem; we need to drain the tank and refill it".The ME says "No, the wheels are unbalanced; we need to get a front-end alignment and a wheel balance"The EE says "You're both wrong; the ignition controls are messed up, we need to get the timing circuit checked"The Software Engineer says "How about we just pull over, turn it off, and restart it?"

minoridiotMost apirplanes made today are "fly by wire" so this isn't new technology, but what concerns me is the statment: "Drivers can also man oeuvre cars more easily as the system cuts out what it deems as unnecessary feedback from the tires to the driver." I wonder what sort of feedback they will cut out. We all use the feedback from the road and tires to help us steer through traffic.

I'm not too worried about this. Wouldn't buy a 1st generation drive by wire system though, but the 2nd generation on might be helpful. I suspect a lot of people will fly off the road going around corners because their wheel isn't responding like an old analog wheel used to. You know how it is, that tighter feel it gets as you go around a corner, the tighter it is, the more likely you are to fly off the road..one reason driving in video games is so hard. You can't tell when you're about to slip except by the gauges and on screen action.

I can only imagine this working like that wireless steering wheel I had on my Nintendo 64. When the battery got low or the connection dropped, you found out about it by plowing into a wall. When I have steering problems in an older vehicle, I find out about it by turning being difficult or though mechanical feedback. Even when the power completely fails, I can still use "armstrong steering" to safely get to a good place to fix it.

On that note, most new cars don't give enough steering feedback as it is. I don't understand why anyone would want zero. Do you not care what the surface you're driving on? Even if I can't see the ice or loose gravel on the road, I sure find out about it through my steering wheel.

Besides all that, what's the point? It's not like conventional power steering is any less fuel efficient than steering by wire. It's just one more thing to break, and when it does, you have no backup system.

Bleyo:This... is not new. It is a necessary step for self driving cars though. It will be easier to get electronically controlled wheels to do what the computer wants once cars have autopilot mode.

I like getting road feedback though...

I've seen some interesting experiments with steering wheel haptics - putting vibration motors and such in the wheel that could give the driver various cues, for example, if they are oversteering or another vehicle is in their blind spot.

Shouldn't be too hard to replace the road feel with something more useful. Also, the road feel is mostly feedback about wheel position - this would have to turn the steering via a motor anyway to keep it all in sync. If anything, you'll regain some feel in a performance car, and adjust it to your taste.

minoridiot:Most apirplanes made today are "fly by wire" so this isn't new technology, but what concerns me is the statment: "Drivers can also man oeuvre cars more easily as the system cuts out what it deems as unnecessary feedback from the tires to the driver." I wonder what sort of feedback they will cut out. We all use the feedback from the road and tires to help us steer through traffic.

We already have stuff like that for steering on ice, etc. Those of us who actually learned how to drive on ice (I was taught in the middle of a blizzard in Colorado by a former demolition derby driver) refuse to drive with those systems :)

Power steering is overrated. Unless you have a quite heavy car, manual steering can be an advantage - except for turning around in a very tight spot. Both my '68 Plymouth Valiant and my Datsun 280Z have manual steering, and honestly, I think that the sensitive feedback I get from having direct mechanical contact with the tires, and therefore the road, allows for much more precise driving, especially at high speeds. But, then, I'm an old car geek who doesn't even like automatic transmission, so I'm sure someone who views cars as nothing more than a conveyance from A-to-B would love the idea of a car with automatic...everything. Self-driving and drive-by-wire are pretty cool from a tech standpoint, but...I prefer to keep it simple.

Based on my personal on-road experience most of you suck so bad at teh driving in general that I welcome an idiot buffer between you and the wheels. Let the car do the work since most of you don't have the coordination to master Velcro-fastened shoes.

TFA: Under the new system, the driver's intentions are transmitted more quickly to the wheels because of the quick speed of electronic signals, Asai said.

Color me skeptical that electronic signals move appreciably faster than the physical information of the movement of a rigid body. Obviously they're unlikely to be appreciably slower, either; I merely question the concept of the difference being anything other than negligible. Steer-by-wire is a solution in search of a problem.

FrancoFile:Four engineers are driving down the road when the engine starts running rough. They start arguing about the cause.The ChE says "We've got a fuel problem; we need to drain the tank and refill it".The ME says "No, the wheels are unbalanced; we need to get a front-end alignment and a wheel balance"The EE says "You're both wrong; the ignition controls are messed up, we need to get the timing circuit checked"The Software Engineer says "How about we just pull over, turn it off, and restart it?"

/thanks, I'm here all week//try the veal

My previous car had a problem with the auto transaxle where it would get into a mode where it would keep abruptly shifting up/down between 1st and 2nd with a jerk. Pulling over and restarting the car would fix this for a while, then it would do it again a month later. Of course, it would never do this when the mechanic took it for a test drive, although he suspected a glitch in the electronic controller.

Finally it died completely. It spent a couple of days with the dealer trying to figure the mystery out. Finally, they gave up and just swapped out the whole thing and put in a brand-new replacement, and sent the bad one back to the factory for analysis.

Didn't cost me a cent. Ford paid for the tow and a rental for the 5 days.

Dear god that would be awesome to see on the road during the first real snow storm.

/ the first SAAB had those front wheel wells, was awesome for aerodynamics// driving in the snow would cause ice pack along the sides until you couldn't steer anymore/// Yes SAAB's were actually designed by airplane designers back then//// less than 1/3rd the design team had a driver's license when they designed the prototype